Finger Wrench: An Amazingly Useful Tool

When you are in an awkward position trying to attach a nut to a bolt, a finger wrench may be just what you need.

I love it when a package arrives at my desk, especially when I'm not expecting anything. Well, an unexpected package just arrived from EETimes blogger Aubrey Kagan (a.k.a. Antedeluvian) in Canada. When I ripped this little rascal open (the package, not Aubrey), I discovered something called the "Finger MAXX":

"Finger MAXX? Give me a break! Is someone taking the mickey?" I thought. But no, it's a serious product. Actually, it's a "dream product" for its creators, because it probably costs only a few cents to make, but you can sell it for a couple of dollars, and just about everyone who plays with tools on the planet would love one of these little scamps.

This actually falls into a class of products that are loosely called "Finger Wrenches." Not surprisingly, the first thing you do is to stick it on the end of the index finger of your "other hand" (i.e., if you are right-handed, you place it on your left hand, and vice versa).

There is a gap all down the back side, thereby allowing one size to fit a wide range of fingers. Next, you slip a nut or bolt into the wrench as shown in the two images below.

Finger pressure keeps the nut of bolt in place. What you can't see is a tapered slot inside the wrench that prevents the nut or bold from turning.

I cannot recall how many times I've been in an awkward position trying to attach a nut to a bolt, cursing every time I dropped the little ragamuffin. This finger wrench would have been a tremendous asset during those trying times.

In fact, this would be a perfect little "stocking filler" gift for so many people I know. I just performed a Google search for "Finger MAXX," which returned some images, which pointed me at FingerMaxx.com, which resulted in a "404 Page not found" error. Can they possibly have gone out of business with a killer product like this? If you know where to find these little scalawags, please share this knowledge with the rest of us.

I have no contact with anyone from high school. I did look up a few people on Facebook but decided not to make contact. As for university, I do keep in contact with a few people, even ran into one at a show some years ago.

Did you know you can get stacked lunch boxes that slide into a insulated container? For example, here's a Zojirushi model - I have something similar I bought many years ago at the Vietnamese home goods store near 99 Ranch in Milpitas. Zo has a variety of models, other such as Tiger probably do too.

I haven't touched one of those Tiffen boxes in 44 years. When I was still a young child, my mom had one of those stacking round container things. It looked pretty much exactly like the one on the Lee Valley page you linked to, except my mom's was 10 or 12 inches in diameter.

Almost 44 years, to the day, ago, I was carrying it to school, full of frosted chocolate cupcakes to give to my classmates, on the occasion of my birthday. I don't know if the unit shown operates the same way, but the handle on my mom's fastened to a set of pins in the bottom tray, allowing it (the handle) to pivot out of the way for easy access to the trays and their delicious contents.

A few blocks from school, I somehow allowed the whole thing to pivot, spilling the nicely frosted cupcakes onto the gravel.

Being the type to not suffer defeat easily, I picked them all up and did my best to pluck the rocks off the frosting. That turned out to not be such a good idea, as the smaller rocks easily hid themselves.

Fortunately, no one actually broke a tooth or got sick, but suffice to say that the response from my classmates was intense enough that I will likely never forget that birthday.

That finger wrench is an amazing tool. I hope that fat that theyie website gives a 404 does not mean they've gone out of business - surely not with such a good product? apart from anything else, that menas Max won't be able to get them as giveaways for EELive 2015 :-(

We have an amazing toolshop in Bathurst where I live called Tool King - same sort of thing as Lee Valley. A very dangerous place to enter - you don't usually get out for an hour or so.....